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A recent USA today article cites Associate Professor Arun
Vishwanath, who once again provides expert commentary on the data
breach phenomenon. In the article, Vishwanath advocates for a
senate bill that would allow data on hacks to be disseminated to
the public much more quickly, allowing time for businesses and
government entities to protect themselves and their
information.

In an article published in the UB Reporter, associate professor
Arun Vishwanath discusses the latest breach of cybersecurity which
compromised the data of federal employees. He asserts that this
latest data breach is merely the tip of the iceberg, and that the
weakness in the system is the users, not the technology, making the
problem nearly impossible to fix. He suggests better internet
safety training for individuals, but notes that bigger attacks may
very well be on the way.

Associate Professor Arun Vishwanath was published on CNN's
website for the second time in six months, in a followup to his
article "Where's the Outrage Over the Sony Hack?" (December 17,
2014). This latest article examines the factors contributing to the
relative ease users offer hackers in phishing for information, and
solutions to increase cybersecurity.

Assistant Professor Matthew Grizzard and his research team were
featured on the Science Channel's Emmy-nominated
series Through the Wormhole with Morgan
Freeman, in the April 29 episode that investigated
whether human beings are naturally prejudiced. The episode, titled
"Are We All Bigots?," highlights Grizzard's work with violence in
video game play. Grizzard and his team contend that ulta-violent
video game play can be used to fight bigotry.

In a CNN article, Associate Professor of Communication Arun
Vishwanath question why the increasing rate of cyber attacks,
hacks, and leaks hasn't lead to a greater amount of public outrage.
The internet, he argues, is a virtual extension of our
neighborhoods, and yet when there are neighborhood intruders, the
public is largely silent. This is in part because of the way news
sources choose to report on hacking events and the lack of direct
cost to consumers. It is also because the public is in large part
responsible for the attacks because of the way in which the
internet is accessed, and the dearth of reporting on hacking
attempts and successes. Vishwanath suggests the development of a
national reporting gateway for cyberthreats, similar to the 911
system, as one way to protect cyberinfrastructures.

Charitable fundraising once depended primarily upon a
charity’s size, efficiency and longstanding reputation. That
was before Razoo, Kickstarter, Facebook and Twitter came to town.
In the first academic study to look at what determines charitable
giving on social-media sites, Gregory Saxton, associate professor
in the Department of Communication, and co-author Lili Wang from
Arizona State, found that those media have created a more level
playing field in the nonprofit world, one in which successful use
of technology can make up for limited organizational size.
Technology and social media, it turns out, can not only raise the
online profile of even small organizations, but increase their
support bases and their ability to generate donations online and
off. That is among the findings of their recent article, “The
Social Network Effect: Determinants of Giving Through Social
Media."

New evidence suggests heinous behavior played out in a virtual
environment can lead to players’ increased sensitivity toward
the moral codes they violated. That is the surprising finding of a
study led by Matthew Grizzard, assistant professor in the
Department of Communication, and co-authored by researchers at
Michigan State University and the University of Texas, Austin.

Armed with a one-year, $56,265 grant from the Population Media
Center, Hua (Helen) Wang, UB assistant professor of
communication, is about to dive into Hulu’s popular
teen Latino webnovela “East Los High.”

Because information about climate change is ubiquitous in the
media, researchers Janet Yang from the University at Buffalo and
Lee Ann Kahlor from UT - Austin looked at why many Americans know
so little about its causes and why many are not interested in
finding out more. Their study found that people with negative
feelings toward climate change seek out more information. The
researchers say the study results present several ways to improve
the communication of risk information related to climate
change.

Listen to a podcast of Dr. Janet Yang
discussing her article, co-authored with LeeAnn Kahlor, "What, Me
Worry? The Role of Affect in Information Seeking and Avoidance"
from the April 2013 issue of Science Communication.

A new study in the Journal of Communication links verbal
aggression to prenatal testosterone exposure. The lead researcher,
Allison Shaw, at University at Buffalo -- used the 2D:4D measure to
predict verbal aggression. This study is the first to use this
method to examine prenatal testosterone exposure as a determinant
of a communication trait.

A new study by Thomas Feeley, Ashley Anker, and Ariel Aloe has
found that, while the well known 'door-in-the-face' strategy has a
significant effect on verbal compliance, its effect on behavioral
compliance is statistically insignificant. In other words, it may
get people to agree to a donation, for instance, but it is not
effective in getting them to follow through with their verbal
commitment.

According to research by Dr. Janet Yang, we might expect that
when offered an effective—and often free—flu vaccine,
college students would get one. But the vast majority do not, and
it poses a serious threat to their own health and that of those
around them.

The Internet is considered primarily a "visual" medium, as
opposed to an aural one, and is thought by many to pose little
barrier to non-hearing users. So hearing persons may be surprised
to learn how difficult and dangerous the Internet can be for
culturally Deaf persons seeking medical or health
information.

In a study published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior
and Social Networking, UB researcher Michael A.
Stefanone, PhD, and colleagues found that females who base
their self worth on their appearance tend to share more photos
online and maintain larger networks on online social networking
sites.